Scare Factor
by soraxtsuna123
Summary: Ponyboy was assigned a project in Drama class. The assignment was to use special effects, costumes, props, and a story line to scare friends and family.


**I don't know… I just had too. Happy Halloween! :D My favorite day of the year. Whoo!**

**By the way, there is no parings in this. Just humor. My oc is a boy, and it won't be one of those pitiful mary-sues and just randomly paired with Ponyboy. Trust me, I would tell you in the summery if that was happening.**

**Disclaimer: The Outsiders belongs to Susan E. Hinton**

**o-o-o**

It was the day before all hallows eve and Ponyboy was sitting down in the auditorium. He had decided on taking a drama class just because he had to take at least one year of performance arts to graduate. The teacher, Ms. Smith was standing on the stage explaining the last second assignment.

"Everyone pair up!" She commanded. Students dove at each other instantly, trying to get the partner they want. Since all of the students were getting taken, choices reduced.

A middle-class boy walked up to Ponyboy with a small smile. "Guess we both got left out." He began with a light-hearted laugh. "Want to be my partner?"

Ponyboy shrugged. "Sure. I'm Ponyboy, by the way."

"Ponyboy? I thought it was a joke when the teacher was taking role call on the first day off school."

"My dad was an original person. I have an older brother named Sodapop. It even says so on his birth certificate."

"That's glorious. I'm Oliver." Oliver was about the same height as I am but with jet black hair. His eyes gleamed green and he had a happy-go-lucky smile on his face.

Oliver sat next to me and we talked a bit before the teacher decided it was time to explain the assignment more. "Since Halloween is tomorrow, and most of you, or all of you, would not go trick-or-treating, I decided on doing a scare. Each group would take the camera that I will assign you and wait until tomorrow. You have to make up a story, using effects, costumes, to scare family or friends, and record it." The bell rung. "You are dismissed!"

Kids filed out of the theater, leaving Oliver and Ponyboy to be the last ones left. "What do you want to do?"

Ponyboy hummed. "Well, I have siblings and friends that comes over regularly that we can try to scare. But, I don't know if we can or not. We can use science for some special effects. I can get some equipment from the chemistry lab."

"I have some friends in the fashion and textiles class. They can quickly make a costume. I can also get some fake blood and buy fishing wire for some effects."

"I have a story line made up. What if…" Ponboy explained the plan.

The next day came quickly. Oliver and I planned to start at evening. The gang was all hanging out in the living room, chatting amongst each other or wrestling. Ponyboy was reading a book, getting near to the end of it. He looked up from the book and to the wall clock. Oliver should be here in a few minutes. He got up and went to his room to "drop off the book". Right after placing the book down, he opened the window. He then went to slide out the box full of science materials that he had gotten. As he did that, making sure that nothing was missing, Oliver climbed in, in full costume. He was wearing an old, Victorian styled garb, a wig, and had makeup on to look pale. He also applied some fake blood to make it look like his neck was cut open.

"Hey, Ponyboy? You ready?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, just making sure we have everything. You go set this up and I'll hide the camera somewhere. When you're ready, you can start." Ponyboy explained. Oliver flashed a smile.

"Let's do this!"

"Do you remember where everything is in this house?"

"Yeah. Oh, this is going to be awesome."

He left the room, Ponyboy following strait behind. Both boys went different directions. Ponyboy went into the living room with another book and sat down. He then placed the camera down under a pillow when no one was looking and turned it on.

Not five minutes later did everything start. The TV went into static before it changed to the movie, The Most Dangerous Game.

"What?" Two-Bit asked.

Two-Bit got up to change the channel back to Mickey Mouse. Right when he sat down the channel changed again to the movie. With a groan he stood back up to change the channel once more, but before he could do that, the TV shut off. Two-Bit tried to turn it on, but it wouldn't.

"Darry, the TV broke." He complained. Ponyboy had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing.

"I'll look at it later." Darry stated.

"Oh, right, it's Halloween." Ponyboy stated lowly. Attention turned to him.

"Yeah, it is, so what?" Steve asked. He had nothing else to do so he was watching the show with Two-Bit.

Ponyboy shuddered, closing the book. "This happens every Halloween."

"So what?"

Ponyboy looked at him with dead seriousness. "You don't know? Halloween is supposed to be the day where the line between the world of the living and the dead is the thinnest. It's only natural that they would come back here."

"You're saying this place is haunted?" Dally asked, rolling his eyes. Ponyboy nodded. "How come we're just now noticing?"

"I noticed every year. I tried to tell you, but none of you listened."

"Our house is not haunted, Ponyboy." Darry reasoned.

"Yes it is! I even did research on it! Apparently a man known as Rodrick Stevens was murdered in the house that was built on this spot before this one. His throat was slashed and his murderer was never caught. That sort of violent death trapped his soul to this spot."

"Is that really true?" Johnny asked, starting to tremble.

"No, he's just pulling your leg. Ponyboy probably set the TV up to do that." Dally said. Johnny nodded. Loud footsteps were heard above everyone, making Johnny jump.

"Then how do you explain that? Someone's walking up there." Ponyboy continued, scooting a bit closer to Soda for effect.

"A rat."

"A rat can't make that sound."

"I can prove that it isn't a ghost." Darry said.

"Then what is it? A living being?"

"If it is a living being, they could kill you." Soda stated, concerned.

"It's fine". Darry got up and went to the ladder that led up to the attic. Ponyboy followed, as did all of the members of the gang, taking the camera with him, making sure no one saw it. Darry poked his head through the attic door after he opened the attic. "No one's here."

"It is a ghost." Johnny whimpered.

"No, it's not!"

A door slammed shut, the sound echoing throughout the house. This time everyone jumped.

"Someone's here." Soda muttered.

"It's Rodrick." Ponyboy murmured.

"You're just paranoid, kid." Dally confirmed. The power turned off.

"I'm not making this up, guys. It seems worse this year."

"You have to be making this up. The paranormal aren't real." Steve said. We all walked out to the living room as the bathroom door slammed shut. "You had to plan that."

"But, if I'm standing here, how did that door close. How did that other door close? How did the footsteps happen in the attic? I'm not making this up." Ponyboy bit his tongue enough for it to sting and make his eyes water a bit. "You have to believe me."

"I believe you." Johnny admitted, his body shook like a Chihuahua.

"I do too." Soda added on.

"You have to be kidding me." Darry sighed. Fog rolled across the ground from the kitchen.

"Leave." A figure boomed, appearing out of thin air in the center of the fog. He looked at the gang with dead eyes. "Leave or die."

"It's Rodrick! I told you!" Ponyboy exclaimed. "We have to go. We're going to die!" He pulled on Soda's sleeve and nudged him closer to the front door.

"We're not going to die. It's just a Soc that's playing a prank on us." Dally walked over to the figure, raising a fist before punching at the apparition. His fist flew through the figure and he stumbled forward. Dally looked at the apparition with wide eyes and stumbled back to the gang. "Okay. Not a Soc."

The apparition cocked his head, a sliding noise was emitted from the figure before the head fell off and into the hands. Blood oozed out of the bottom of the head and the neck. That was when everyone knew that this was the ghost of Rodrick. "You weren't making this up." Two-Bit whispered. The figure glared at them before the fog rose higher, covering the figure. The fog immediately lifted and all that was left was writing on the wall in blood.

_TOO LATE_

Wind blew at them at a high rate. "Run!" Soda cried and soon everyone rushed to the front door. Steve, who was in front, was only a feet away before the door slammed shut. He jiggled the handle but it wasn't turning.

"It's not opening!" Steve said.

"Let's go to my room." Darry suggested and everyone ran there. They entered the room, slamming the door shut and huddled in a corner. Footsteps were heard right outside the door. The door handle jiggled before stopping. Silence.

"Do you think it's gone?" Soda whispered.

"I don't know…"

Fog entered the room. "Here you are!" Rodrick's form flickered in the room. "Want to play a game? The rules are simple. I count from ten. You have that much time until I," Rodrick pulled out a knife from his sleeve, "come and find you. If that happens, it's game over for you. Ready. 10." Rodrick's form faded away but his voice was clear. "9."

The gang understood that this was their last chance. They all stood up from the floor and unlocked the door before rushing out the room one at a time. "8."

They hurried through the hallway. "7." They entered the living room. "6." His voice became deeper and more demonic. "5. 4. 3. 2. 1." His counting came quicker. "Game over." By that time they were at the center of the living room and Rodrick's form came up. He started to charge the gang with the knife in hand. Ponyboy skidded in place and stopped. No one noticed and the gang all ran out of the house. The door slammed behind them.

"Are you serious?" Ponyboy gapped and then broke out in laughter that he was holding in. Rodrick—or Oliver—stopped and laughed. They high-fived each other.

"That was almost too easy." He giggled out. Ponyboy stopped the recording. "How much more time do you think it would take them to realize that you're not there?"

"A minute or two more."

The gang all ran out of the house with terrified expressions on their faces. Some greasers looked at them weirdly. Soda looked back, hoping to find no ghost trailing them. He noticed something missing.

"Wait! Where's Pony?" The gang stopped with Soda and they looked around. "I don't see him."

"Did he get…" Johnny's eyes widened bigger than a plate.

"Now that you mention it, I didn't see him leave the house." Steve admitted.

"We have to go back. Maybe the ghost didn't kill him yet!" Soda said.

"You're right…" Darry said. They all traveled back to the house, and noticed the light was on. They creaked open the door and heard laughter. They were shocked to see Ponyboy talking to the ghost on the couch.

"And we can't forget about Steve's face." Ponyboy laughed out, imitating it. The ghost laughed. "Oh, Oliver, you're act was perfect."

"Oliver? Isn't that Rodrick?" Darry barged in the house and Ponyboy smiled at him.

"I was wondering when you'll notice I wasn't there. Let me introduce you. This is Oliver, we're partners in a drama assignment. This is going to give us an 'A'."

"Drama assignment?" Dally walked in the house along with the others.

"Yeah. We had to use special effects and costumes to scare you. We succeeded." Oliver explained. "Ponyboy's acting was amazing."

"Yours was good too. I nearly laughed in mine."

"Me too. Your faces. Oh jeez." Oliver laughed again.

"This was an act? How did you do all of that?" Two-Bit asked, amazed.

"All of what?" Ponyboy asked.

"The TV for one thing."

"I interrupted the signal on the roof and angled the satellite just right that it changed the channel. Then I unplugged it." Oliver explained with a smile.

"The footsteps in the attic."

"Oh, that was also me. But I was stomping on the roof and not in the attic."

"The lights."

"Turned off the power from outside."

"The doors closing."

"That was both Ponyboy and I. While Ponyboy passed the door, he would attach fishing wire to it, and handed the other end to me when I went in the vents."

"The wind blowing."

"A fan."

"The fog."

"That was a mixture of two chemicals I got from the chemistry lab at school. It makes fog like that." Ponyboy came in.

"The writing on the wall."

"When the fog went high, I wrote on it with fake blood. Fake blood does wonders."

"How do you explain when I punched you then?" Dally asked.

"That was a projection."

"Then how did your head fall off?"

"Easy." Oliver's head fell in his hand before coming back to place. "I'm flexible and I was wearing a shirt that made it so my head appears to be falling off and my back replaced were my shoulders were."

"Okay… How do you do that voice then?"

"A voice recording."

"How did you get in the rooms when they were locked?" Dally asked.

"There are other ways to get around this house. You don't have screens on your windows. I went through there."

"I can't wait until we show our teacher." Ponyboy said, showing the camera.

"YOU RECORDED US? Steve boomed. Ponyboy nodded.

"Oliver… Go long… and then run." Oliver understood immediately and ran around the gang. Ponyboy pitched the camera and Oliver quickly caught it and sprinted out the house.

"Give me that camera!" Steve ran after Oliver.

"Run, Oliver, run!"

**o-o-o**

**If I get enough reviews, I might write one more chapter. .**


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